$5 a gallon for gas? Get ready, experts say

"Undermine the entire economy" means not the way you like it to be. But your views are not necessarily popular.

Yeah except that you also tend to have massive unemployment during these housing busts.

So the fed is what blew the bubble? Do you claim this was by design or accident?

Maybe he prefers the govt to steal from his gas tank rather than confiscate from his pay check.

People tend to not do that when gas is $8/gal

Some people tend to arrange their life to need less fuel consumption.

-jim

That wasn't the question. His employer has the same cost for his labor as your employer pays for yours.

He pays a lot more tax on gasoline because that is part of how the social engineering through taxes is done there. The pump price, which includes taxes, is irrelevant to subject of inflation in the USA. Inflation will increase the costs to make gasoline, it effects the gasoline portion of the price, the tax rates remain the same.

So you'll be fine with a $1/gal increase in the federal gas tax because it will be less than what is paid in europe? Or if there is a major breakthrough in refining that lowers the cost of making gasoline you wouldn't mind if the government raised taxes to take all of that savings? If oil went back down to $20/bbl you'd be fine if taxes were raised to keep gasoline prices at $3.50? If all you do is look at the final cost to you, you'll never be able to deal with the issues behind pump prices for gasoline, which is what was being discussed.

The government, IMO, made borrowing to buy homes and cars too easy, and people bought beyond their means to repay. I believe the bubble was blown as a result of some in government trying to bribe the lower economic segments of society .

It wasnt by accident by it was by short sightedness.

Look around and see what has happened thanks to artifically low interest rates in the last decade plus. Where things are going is hardly an improvement for most people. Although it is desirable for some.

Then perhaps you should be against the central bank inflating the money supply to create a boom/bubble that leads to the bust.

Where do you think the money came from to create the extremely low interest rates for mortgages? What created an environment where money was very cheap for the banks to get?

Depends if your world view is one of people in certain places acting for their self interest or your world view is one where the "experts" are actually very stupid people who make huge mistakes. (Because it is simply impossible for central planning to function long term.) Or perhaps a bit of both.

So then he would care to know the breakdown of that pump price, so as to get what he wants on his neighbor's dime.

Create a low tax territory within a couple miles of some of them where they can freely cross the border and open a gas station there and find out.

You live in a big city. You rarely use your car except to go on longer trips into a neighboring county where gasoline taxes are $0.20 a gallon less. A tank will last you from one trip to the next and then some. Where do you purchase gasoline? At the gas station on corner a

1/8mi from your home or at your destination in the neighboring county?

I hear the majority of Americans are of Hispanic origin now.

How high priced will gas and diesel fuel have to get and people just can not afford to drive anymore? Food prices are going way up too. cuhulin

Long as we don't get No Va.....

I doubt that pseudostatistic, BUT the percentage of Hispanics in Texas, and in the nearby southern states, is increasing. In my town it is some 30%, blacks 50%, and then there are the rest of us.

*** Actual story.. A young man here in my town had a situation where he facilitated loans for people just a few years ago. As one example, he helped a man from the Houston area get a loan for $200,000.

His commission was $70,000 on this loan.

The banks wanted this loan to consolidate into an instrument they could sell. He clearly wanted the 70K. The man wanting the loan clearly could not qualify for this level of loan on his own.

VOODOO!!!

If I my mortgage is fixed rate and term, and I have no plans to sell my home any time soon, it makes no difference to me if my theoretical home value which used to be 2X my mortgage drops to 1X my mortgage or even less. My payments stay the same, my roof stays over my head and all is just fine. Indeed I will likely benefit from the lower theoretical home value in the form of lower property taxes. Unless you are trying to sell your house the theoretical value is just that, theory.

LOL

The information is prety screwed up when it arrives here.

SSSSH! They aren't included in the Consumer Price Index! Keeps inflation lower that way...

One in six. I heard that too, and it was confusing. What they MEANT was the highest GROWTH RATE in the US is Hispanics, growing at a rate of 53%.

If you don't include illegals, it's only 2%...

Your situation may or may not be dire, but statistically speaking people in the same boat are in trouble. If you are under water (your debt exceeds assets) then you have limited means to deal with emergencies. So if you lose your job, get flooded, or break your leg or car you may have troubles you wouldn't have had if your home equity was in the black.

There have been an estimated 2 million foreclosures in the last couple of years that wouldn't have happened if the property values behind those mortgages had not decreased. And there are another 10-15 million home mortgages that are still at risk for the same reason. If too many houses are forced on the market by foreclosures then housing prices drop even further and that means an even larger pool of martgages become negative equity - that has the potential of turning into a vicious self-reinforcing cycle producing massive collapse in prices. Something like 12% of mortgages are behind in their payments while a few years ago it was around 3% behind.

Also another aggravating problem is the huge amount of US household debt besides mortgage debt. A lot of that debt was acquired based on the belief that the value of one's home would always increase or atleast hold steady.

-jim

We call it "spin".

Watching TV news, a woman in Old Saybrook bought a VW Jetta diesel engine car.A VW shop told her it will cost in excess of $10,000 to clean out all of the Algae from her car's fuel system.They reccomend a product by the name of Stanadyne, or some such additive, be added with every fill up.

If the the Algae doesn't 'git us' that Ethanol will! cuhulin

Same here...I think it's done on purpose, no matter WHO is doing the reporting...

We do too. I get the impression you're in the UK? If so, WTF happened to the BBC?!?!?! They were always my reliable source for the Straight Dope, but in the last few years they have swung so far to the left it gave me vertigo!

Oh! You're a KIWI!!! ;)

One place I have wanted to go for a long time! (You aren't the guy from ABIF, are you? The dirt rider?)